sOCKEYE RUN OFF TO A SLOW START
By Tom Fletcher
Black Press
Jul 21 2006
The 2006 Fraser River sockeye has started out with low returns, but that doesn't mean the anticipated bumper harvest of B.C.'s most valuable salmon fishery won't materialize, government officials say.
The slow start is "not unusual" as the Fraser River system makes a transition from one strain of sockeye to the next, says the latest report from the Pacific Salmon Commission, which manages stocks on behalf of Canada and the U.S.
In their season forecast at the end of June, the commission projected a return of more than 17 million sockeye by the time all the runs are in, with a peak occurring around Aug. 10. Runs later in the summer are expected to provide the majority of the fish.
Sockeye require a river-and-lake system, and most runs are named for their home lakes where young fish are reared. Their four-year cycles out to sea and back are monitored by the commission, established in a 1985 treaty between the U.S. and Canada.
In addition to commercial fishing pressure on the lucrative sockeye, river and ocean temperatures are a concern for scientists, as well as predator species that can combine with warmer water to sharply reduce salmon survival. Test fisheries are conducted to give scientists a snapshot of what is in the river, but are a subject to their own vagaries. A test fishery at Whonnock on Saturday caught no fish, but eight seals were spotted, and seals or sea lions often eat fish in nets before they can be brought aboard.
The salmon are also counted using sonar equipment at Mission, and some are tagged to track their progress electronically.
Two of the scarcest runs in recent years are from Cultus and Sakinaw Lakes. Only 5,800 Cultus Lake sockeye are projected to come back this year. Since they intermingle with other stocks on their way up the river, commercial fishing has been halted entirely in some years to protect them.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada has started a program to eradicate young northern pike from Cultus Lake. Pike feed voraciously on young sockeye, and have proliferated with the spread of milfoil, an invasive weed that provides ideal habitat for pike. The program collects and destroys pike minnows, and also removes the milfoil.
The commission notes that in recent years the runs have been arriving later and encountering high water temperatures, which can kill many of them before they spawn. In this year's run, more than 70 per cent of the production depends on only two late runs, the Quesnel and Late Shuswap.
"The forecast for Quesnel sockeye is particularly uncertain, in part because the fry from the 2002 brood year had a much smaller body size than average, which may result in low marine survival," the commission said.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada determines native and non-native fishing openings in Canadian waters. They are determined by separate agencies in the U.S.
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Topic: SOCKEYE ARTICLE FROM TODAYS SURREY LEADER (Read 2756 times)